1989 Spokane Indians at the mall - Greg Hall

1B-OF Greg Hall was drafted by the Padres in the 23rd round in 1985 and played in that organization through the beginning of the 1989 season (22 games at Class-A Riverside). At some point that season he must have retired to coach the Spokane team. Overall in his career he hit .264 with 12 HR and 138 RBI in 381 minor league games. He is now a Sales Manager at Niello Audi in Sacramento.

I already covered Mrs. Fields in a previous set with Tye Waller, also a coach. I guess coaches like cookies.

Trade with Nolan's dugout

Kyle of Nolan's Dugout sent me a few hundred cards in a great trade. He got me to near completion in a bunch of sets.

A couple of weeks ago I thought I had completed the 1989 Bowman set, but it turned out I still needed this Will Clark card. This card was actually the impetus for the trade. The set should have been complete - but it turns out I made another mistake on my wantlist for this set and still need another card - #466 Rick Reuschel. Anyone have that card to trade?

 This trade did complete one set for me - 1992 Stadium Club with the elusive Marvin Freeman.

 Other sets that I am now down to under ten needs. Showing a card from Kyle along with my remaining needs from each set:

1995 Collector's Choice SE: still need 1, 2, 45, 85, 115, 238

 1995 Donruss: still need 42, 49, 50, 83, 241, 248, 275

 1993 Fleer: still need 381, 477, 519, 543, 603, 606, 629

 1995 Fleer: still need 67, 127, 246, 312, 318, 509, 560, 574

 1992 Leaf: down to just one need, and it's a common - #137 Joe Grahe

 1994 Leaf: still need 391, 400, 409 (McGwire, Big Hurt, Ozzie)

 2008 SP Authentic: down to just one need, #63 Johnny Damon. A Yankee card!

 1992 Studio: down to two needs here, 100 and 125. Both commons - Todd Zeile and Sam Horn. Showing the back of this card that Kyle sent for the nice thank you to the photographers.

 1993 Studio - just need #71 - Nolan Ryan. I love how Cal Ripken is trolling Studio on this card. I do enjoy the questionnaires though.

 2012 Topps: still need 216, 247, 305, 310, 400, 446, 550, 641

 2013 Topps: still need 18, 162, 200, 245

Holiday PWE from Baseball Card Breakdown

I was one of those fortunate to receive a generous PWE from Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown. Lots of cool stuff inside:

Some cards from New York teams.

 Gavin knows I collect cards from all teams, and he's always got some extra Padres oddballs to throw my way. The Mark Parent card is from Coca-Cola Classic and 7-Eleven. On the right is a Topps stamp that is as old as the Padres - 1969. I had to look up Larry Stahl - he is the guy whose walk broke up Milt Pappas's perfect game.

 Gavin always includes some great customs. This great Mattingly card is very much appreciated.

 I got one of those awesome rip cards that he's been including in these packages. What was inside?

 This amazing magnet featuring Derek Jeter's home run on the first pitch of Game 4 of the 2000 World Series. Most of my baseball cards are on metal shelving units (the kind you buy in Home Depot) and this magnet will go nicely on there with a Don Mattingly/Simpsons magnet I got from Gavin a couple of years ago.

Thanks Gavin!

1989 Spokane Indians at the mall - Terry Rupp

First baseman Terry Rupp played in the Padres organization in 1989 and 1990. In 162 games he hit .246 with 10 HR and 81 RBI. He was later head coach at University of Tampa and University of Maryland (surviving a brain tumor in 1997) and is currently the Athletic Director at Jesuit High School in Tampa. A fuller account of his career can be found at The Greatest 21 Days.

Sheer Madness was the mall's lingerie store. Too bad they went so conservative on the photo; a little more daring and you would have had one of the greatest cards of all time.

2004 Fleer Daily News Yankees

My sister-in-law was in town recently and was cleaning out a bunch of her stuff from her parents house. She came across some Yankees stuff she had and gave them to me. They were mostly photo inserts from the Daily News but also this uncut panel of exclusive baseball cards from Fleer. They were the first nine cards of a ten card set. The tenth card was of the newest Yankee, Alex Rodriguez, which was a bonus offer. I'm cutting these up and adding them to my collection.

Wallet Card at a Long Island privelege sign

The Talk of the Town deli in Elmont, NY has a great old Pepsi privilege sign.

Here is the side view, which is what you would see first driving by. The colors on the old Pepsi logo really pop out as you.

 The front sign has so many great elements. Too more Pepsi signs, plus a Coca-Cola banner - I guess they don't play favorites. An old Lotto logo as well - bot the Pepsi and Lotto logos date back to the 1970s. And they call themselves a Suprette, an old name for a deli you don't see anymore either.

1989 Spokane Indians at the Mall - Joe Buckley

1989 was Joe Buckley's only professional season. In 22 games, all but one in relief, he went 1-3 with a 4.75 ERA.

Saad's Shoe Repair has operated in various locations in Spokane since 1905. They are one of the oldest shoe repair stores in the Northwest.

Wallet Card with a Bohack crate

I passed one of Manhattan's many antique stores which are filled with overpriced old furniture and other relatively boring stuff, when this box caught my eye. Bohack was a supermarket on Long Island and in New York City from 1887 to 1977. There are some old Bohack ghost signs in Queens that I want to get to at some point but meanwhile here's a little bit of Bohack visible today.

1989 Spokane Indians at the mall - Kevin Higgins

Catcher Kevin Higgins made the major leagues with 71 games for the Padres in 1993. He hit .221 with 0 HR and 13 RBI. A fuller account of his career can be found at The Greatest 21 Days.

I've covered Hickory Farms in the other sets. The MasterCard and Visa logos haven't changed much in the last 30 years.

Wallet Card with some vintage buses

Just like last year, I was able to check out some of the vintage buses that the MTA rolls out for a couple of weeks every December. It's fun to see buses that have been out of service for decades suddenly reappear on active duty.

Bus #3100 - the General Motors TDH-5106 was introduced in 1956. This particular bus was actually a demo bus (which may explain why it has stayed in such good shape over the last 60 years). This was the first air-conditioned bus in New York City. Fifth Avenue Coach Lines was a private bus company that ran in Manhattan, the Bronx and Westchester from 1896 to 1962, when bus operations were taken over by the city.
 

Bus #9098 - Just like last year, I was only able to get a couple of brief shots of this 1958 version of the TDH-5106. Elusive bus - my guess is that its not in as good a shape as some of the others so can't be on the road that much.

Bus # 8466 is a 1966 General Motors TDH-5303. Note the ad on the side for the musical Chorus Line and the logo for the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority, which would later be replaced on active buses by the MTA logo.

 
Bus #5227 - I didn't see this one last year. I don't know if it wasn't out or if I just missed it because with the white color it blends in with modern buses. It is a  1970 General Motors T6H-5305A, the last non-wheelchair accessible bus to operate for NYC Transit, pulled from service in 1993. The sign for ALCC English language school, with its learnenglish.com web address, is a current ad. A 2007 flickr photo of the bus shows it with an ad for the 1993 movie Made in America.

 

 

1989 Spokane Indians at the mall - John Phelan

John Phelan's pro career consisted of 20 games with Spokane in 1989. In five starts and 15 relief appearances he went 2-5 with a 6.24 ERA.

Kaufman Brothers began its operations in Pittsfield, MA in 1922 as a candy wholesaler. World War II sugar shortages forced the company to diversify and so they went into the wholesale toy business, changing the name to Kay Bee Toy & Hobby in 1948. The first Kay Bee retail store opened in Connecticut in 1959, and at its peak it operated more than 1,300 stores across all 50 states. Like many retail businesses the economic difficulties of the early 2000s killed the Kay Bee brand; the last stores closed in 2009. From 1986 to 1990 Kay Bee put out small sets of baseball cards.

Wallet Card at the Hotel Seville

The Hotel Seville operated at 28th Street and Madison Avenue from 1904 to 1987. It was a well-known hotel in the first half of the Twentieth Century - it gained a reputation as a popular speakeasy during prohibition and Harpo Marx developed several comedy skits about his time as a bellboy at the Hotel. Like much of New York it underwent some tough times in later decades and was extensively renovated under new management in the 1980s. It is now known as the Carlton Hotel. However, the Seville name, unused for the last 30 years, can still be seen in the tile of the service entrance on the 28th Street side of the building.

1989 Spokane Indians at the mall - Eddie Zinter

Eddie Zinter pitched in 159 games in the Padres organization, mostly in relief, from 1989 to 1992. He went 16-19 with 40 saves and a 3.64 ERA. A fuller account of his career can be found at The Greatest 21 Days.

How great is this - a baseball card photo taken at a baseball card store. Check out the poster of Jose Canseco, at the time the hottest player in baseball. Unfortunately I couldn't find the name of the store. (The sets were sponsored by the mall, not the store.)

Trade with Scott Crawford on Cards

Scott Crawford has a lot of cards to unload. As in 50,000-60,000 cards. I got 800 from him in a trade that is sending him over 500 cards back - gets rid of a bit of the clutter I guess. His trade packages are always awesome and this was no exception. Too much great randomness to fully cover here. A few highlights:

I love Collectors Choice, and while I have the complete 1994-1997 sets most of 1998 has eluded me. Scott sent a bunch of these.

 Another set with great photography was Ultra in the late 90s and early 00s. Scott send a bunch of cards from various years of that set.

 These Upper Deck Yankees Classics cards are really nice.

 Not sure how Lady Liberty counts as a Yankee though.

 There were lots of chrome cards. The mirror effect of the chrome makes the ball look almost invisible here.

 I had never had a Konami card before.

 Those early 1990s Denny's sets were great, really underrated cards. Another Statue of Liberty cameo.

 More random shiny goodness.

 He sent a few Topps Bunt cards, my first from that set.